Blind Betrayal
by Jasmine Syms
Summary: What if the roles were reversed during Blind Betrayal? Would Danse even hesitate to put a bullet in you? Could you reach him through the years of brainwashing? (Or in which while he challenged you to come up with a reason why he should live, you challenge him to come up with a reason why you should die)
So I played through Blind Betrayal and it absolutely broke my heart because of how things played out (at end note im gonna go into detail bc i just have to talk to someone abt this) and then I started thinking about how things would go down if he was told to kill me because I was a synth, and at first I sadly accepted that he wouldn't even ask questions before shooting, because my poor child is so brainwashed it's not even funny. But then I came up with this, and yeah I roped myself into writing a fanfic bc I am trash.

* * *

You knew he would come for you. Come to kill you. And you knew he would go through with it. As far as you were concerned, you'd be lucky to see a moment of hesitation in his eyes.

Danse was a good soldier. He was too loyal, and the Brotherhood was all too willing to take advantage of that. You had tried many times in your travels with him mentioning that he was pretty brainwashed by them, unwilling to listen to anything else. Needless to say, he was pretty unwilling to listen.

Still, you told him in any way that you could that you wanted to talk and would not be hostile. You went alone to Listening Post Bravo. You deactivated the turrets and protectrons. You left a message for him in the terminal used to power up the elevator. Hopefully he was curious enough to read it when he saw his name. You left your power armor and guns on the floor, so he'd see them when the elevator doors open. When he comes into the room with you in it, you'll have your hands above your head. Get him talking, get him to give you a chance, that's all you'll ask for.

You took a deep breath and tried to calm your thoughts. You had gotten caught up in so many adventures around the Commonwealth, people _relied_ on you. And here you were, about to die, about to be killed by your best friend. Institute, Railroad, Brotherhood, you spent so much time wondering which one you should side with. As it turned out, it didn't matter. You didn't matter.

You were caught up in your thoughts when you heard the elevator start up. It was happening. You got out of the seat you were in and got on your knees, putting your hands above your head. You looked at the doorway. If Danse is going to kill you, he's going to have to look directly in your eyes when he does it.

The elevator dinged. You heard his footsteps. His big, clunky footsteps. Even now, he doesn't take his power armor off. Typical.

He got closer and closer until you saw him round the corner into the room, gun drawn.

You stared into his eyes, thankful that he never used his helmet. He aimed the gun at your head and took a deep breath. You refused to shut your eyes.  
He exhaled, but did not lower the gun. "I'm sorry, I- I have to do this."

An excuse. It was more hesitation than you expected. Still, you didn't react. You gave him no nod of approval, no acknowledgement that his excuse was just. If he was looking for you to agree with him, he would be disappointed.

He looked down the sights again, and got distracted by your eyes. He was uncomfortable, probably wished you would look away. You weren't giving him that.  
He breathed in and set his finger on the trigger. Still, he didn't pull it. Suddenly the gun was lowered slightly.

"Tell me one thing. There's no use in lying, I'm going to kill you no matter what you answer. Did you even know? Was this- joining the Brotherhood, being my fr-partner, was that all just a plot to get information?"

You were a little proud of him. He even asked you to speak. To explain yourself.

"I never lied to you Danse. In anything. I learned just yesterday I was a synth. Father from the institute told me. I ran a mission for them, while informing the Brotherhood, of course, and afterwards he told me what all this was. He had found his biological mother in Vault 111 years ago and took her to the institute. She recently died, and I? I was given her memories and put in the vault all as an 'experiment' of his. I knew that with the information I gave them the Brotherhood would have to figure out sometime what I was, so I came here. And if you don't want to believe that I was genuinely your _friend_ this whole time, remember how much I disagreed with the Brotherhood. All the times I said I felt they were brainwashing people, or that there are synths who are just like people-"

He narrowed his eyes. "You did speak against the Brotherhood and our ideals many times. Probably trying to take it apart from within. Maybe even get me to join you."

You cleared your throat. "My point being, if I had anything planned against it, I would probably have 'talk shit about the Brotherhood' real low on my list of ways to not raise suspicions."

"I suppose. Then, just know that I truly am sorry about this. I don't exactly want to kill you. But orders are orders." He lifted the gun again.

You didn't expect to have anything else to say but words flowed from your mouth in that moment. "That's bullshit, Danse. You keep saying that you aren't blindly following the Brotherhood, that you fully agree with the calls they make, so if that's true, if you're where you belong, you should be able to agree with why they want me dead. You should be doing this proudly. So go ahead, you can kill me, but first, give me a reason why you genuinely want me dead, don't feed me this 'orders are orders' bullshit."

He blinked. His grip on the trigger loosened and he thought, avoiding your eyes as he tried to come up with something. It wasn't long before his first suggestion.

"You're a synth. Synths must die." He sounded pretty sure about that.

"Who told you that?"

He looked at the ground.

You asked another question. "Can you tell me some reasons why, then? Justify that to me?"

"Synths are technology run amok, they're going to take over and-" He stopped abruptly when he realized he was more or less quoting things Maxson has said. He furrowed his brow. "We can't let synths run around, sneaking into our societies. The Institute could decide at any moment to-" He drifted off, again realizing that his words were practically scripted. He screwed his eyes shut and let out an angry grunt. "They aren't human! They have no emotions, no morals."

"Do you know that to be true?"

"It's a fact. A machine can't simulate emotions."

"I don't believe that you think that."

He swallowed. "Excuse me?"

"The first thing you asked me when you got in here, you wanted to know if I knew I was a synth and was pretending to be your friend. In other words, you thought it was very possible I didn't know, and that everything I've done, every _emotion_ I've felt was real."

Danse stayed silent, so you continued.

"And remember Nick? Remember how you refused to talk to him? Remember how you rolled your eyes when I told you he was my friend and said that you should at least pretend to be nice? He acts like those comments don't get to him but he's so confused about who he is, about separating himself from the 'original Nick', about whether or not he can consider himself a _person_ , how can he be so concerned with that and have no emotions? How can he stay kind in a society that rejects him if he doesn't have morals?"

You were getting bolder now, your hands falling from your head and your voice raising. "And the Brotherhood talks of how a synth can't feel while telling you they fear us. What if what they told you is wrong? What if-"

"Stop." He took a deep breath. "All I'm seeing right now is a _synth_ begging for its life so it can betray the Brotherhood."

"I don't care about my life, Danse. If I did I'd hardly be spending all my time in battles! I care about you. You're a good person, but you've allowed yourself to get so _brainwashed_. You can kill me if you want, but I don't want to see you pretend to be _proud_ of it. You used Cutler as an excuse to hate mutants, ghouls, synths, anything non-human. I'm going to tell you right now that you aren't going to do that with me, alright? You don't have my permission to use my death to help your grudge live on. When you think of me, think that synths are people. Think of all the synths you've murdered because you were told to. All I want is for you to be free, free from their lies and propaganda and-"

Loud shots rang out through the room. You flinched and a surprised squeak came out of your mouth. For once your eyes were closed. When you opened them, you found that the bullets had been shot at the wall behind you.

"Sorry." Danse's response was so silly, you found yourself laughing. "What's so funny?"

You put on a straight face. "What are you sorry for, Danse? Missing my head? You came down here to kill me and you apologized for _scaring me a little_."

Then an amazing thing happened. It was a small but unmistakable sound. "Was that a laugh, Paladin? I've finally made you laugh? Well now, I guess I can die happy, at least."

Suddenly everything was serious again. "No."

"No what?"

He dropped his gun. "You're not dying. Not today. Not by my hand."

"Are you saying-"

"I'm saying you should give me your holotags and lay low for a while. I'll report back to Maxson, tell him you're dead. Then I think I'll have to-" He hesitated, the next words obviously feeling weird on his tongue. "...reconsider my position in the Brotherhood."

You smiled. You wanted to hug him so much. "I'm proud of you. I thought- that despite all our time together, you'd wind up shooting me before speaking, then call me a filthy synth and 'Ad Victoriam' out."

He avoided your eyes. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't planning on it. Haylen had a few words with me before I left. She said I should hear you out. I said her suggestion was out of line, but it still made me think." He paused, getting out of his armor (for once) before sitting on the ground next to you.  
"So, if you don't like the Brotherhood, you're not supporting the Institute, are you?"

You laughed. "Hell no. I mean, yeah, I've met a lot of great synths. That doesn't mean trust the Institute to keep churning them out for their own personal gain." You stayed silent for a moment. "They don't respect synths either, you know? They treat them as servants to their cause. The Railroad- they have the right idea, but they're not perfect. I gotta trust the Minutemen, though. I hear their General's pretty reasonable." You smirked at him.

"I think you're a little biased, soldier."

"Me? Never. I just hear a lot of things. People have said the General's super hot, too."

"Hear anything about the guy in the big metal suit that's always following them around?"

"Oh yeah. He's _super_ hot. A bit of an asshole to people he doesn't know. A huge asshole to non-humans, owes about five hundred apologies to Valentine. But he's just really loyal to his cause, which isn't the best cause, but it's all he's known. Deep down, I hear he actually has a heart." You looked at him when you finished to see him starting to smile before he stopped himself.

"So, the Minutemen, huh?"

"Yeah, I think you'd enjoy yourself on a settlement. If you ever get bored when you're not following me around, there's always a settlement in trouble. Just ask Preston. He'll even mark it on your map. And guess what?" You changed your voice to a whisper. "I have one settlement where I keep like, 12 suits of power armor." You winked at him.

He gave a small smile, but didn't respond. It was silent for a while before he spoke again. "I almost killed you. I came here with every intention of killing you, I played it out in my head. I _imagined_ myself killing you a million times over on the way here. And I didn't even feel guilty, I thought it would be the right thing." He ran a hand through his hair. "I thought killing my best friend was okay just because they told me it was right, maybe I am a little brainwashed. I didn't even _hesitate_ to accept the mission, I-" He pinched the bridge of his nose. "How can you not hate me? You've done so much for me, and I just decide I'm fine with killing you within seconds? I obviously don't deserve to have friends."

"I don't blame you, Danse." You stopped him before he could insult himself further. "You were confused, looking for a purpose when you joined the Brotherhood. They were all too happy to give you one. They took advantage of you, and you can't completely blame yourself. You're a soldier, you trust the people in charge, you're not supposed to consider that maybe you haven't been doing the best thing for all these years. I'm not saying that you're completely innocent in all this, but you can't take all the blame. It's too much to carry, even with all that power armor."

He looked uncomfortable. "Maxson will be expecting me soon. Give me your holotags and stay down here for a while. I'm going to try to sort things out with the Brotherhood and try to figure things out for myself. I'll be back here when everything cools down." He got to his feet.

"What, no kiss goodbye?" You asked.

He hopped back into his power armor and turned to leave. "Not this time, soldier."

* * *

ok so when I was playing through the quest danse tOLD ME TO KILL HIM BC HE'S AN ABOMINATION AND I SAID NO AND HE ASKS "WHY GIVE ME A GOOD REASON" AND I TOLD HIM THAT HE'S STILL A PERSON, THAT HE'S PROOF THAT SYNTHS AREN'T ALL BAD, THAT HE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO DIE JUST BECAUSE OF THIS AND HE FUCKNING TELLS ME "i don't buy that" and gets down on his knees and tells me to kill him already like ok my heart is shattered at this point there are pieces of my heart on the floor and im so upset and i go back to the dialogue and choose a different option to convince him to live, that it wasn't fair to ask me to kill him, and that's when he gave up. i know if my charisma was higher i probably would have convinced him with the first one but just. that combination is so devastating. he thought that he needed to be destroyed and didn't believe he deserved to live but he didN'T WANT ME TO FEEL BAD FOR KILLING HIM? GOODBYE ALL.

so yeah that's why this whole quest made me miserable and just stuck with me.

LEAVE A COMMENT AFTER READING TO SUPPORT THE CAUSE OF DEBRAINWASHING MY TIN CAN CHILD,,,


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